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help with the 3D viewer helper

Hi,

I am having problems understanding how to use the 3D viewer helper. I created a 2 x 2 grid, each cell representing the amount of biomass produced on a model run with different initial values. I intend to use the third dimension to better observe differences in biomass among cells.

I understand the helper needs four variables: x and y coordinates, and two more (variation and size).  I get a confused when the helper ask me for tree: variation and tree: size (I do not have a variable called tree) . I assume that variation has something to do with the colours, but do not see how to associate the amount I want to represent with those variables. At the end all what I get is the 2 x 2 grid in 3D  but no apparent changes when running the model.

Thans in advance for your help

Mauricio Jerez

Forums: 

The 3-D Viewer helper is pretty old, and has not been tidied up as carefully as the others -- so it still uses a few names that are specific to the model for which it was originally developed. However, the functionality is OK. You can click on any values inside your grid cell submodel for the last two values, irrespective of their names in your model. One will determine the colour of the columns in the diagram, and the other their height. Both will be 'auto-ranged' to create a meaningful display with the supplied values.

Actually it does not appear to work with a grid where either dimension is less than 10, although if you start off with a 10x10 grid then edit it to have fewer values after you have set up the display tool, that still works. I'll get that fixed for the next release (and remove the "tree" references!)

 

Thanks I´ll be back with the model soon!

OK, I've fixed this for the next version. For now, you can avoid the problem by making sure the model variables used for the x and y positions are of type real, either by specifying this in the units field of the equation dialogue, or by using a real constant in their calculation, e.g., index(1) + 0.0.